Re: Emacs setup assistants

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > I don't see what you are getting at.  Info files are not read by
> > the texinfo parser.  Is the question whether you should write your
> > own info reader?
> 
> I'm not talking about info -- I'm talking about TeXinfo.  Which is a
> language that Emacs can parse.  See `texinfo-format-region'.

Ok, then we are talking about two different things here.  You are
talking about the input file format, I am thinking of how to access
the information.  But let us just explore the possibilities of
synergies:

a) is there something to be gained by having the whole Texinfo
machinery available?  Conversion into HTML (with Active-E controls?
Implemented via emcasclient or natively in emacs-w3m?  Or just with
copy&paste recipes to feed into an inferior Lisp buffer), into
printable manuals, into fast accessible info pages?

The info pages, of course, would be extended with controls for
configuring stuff.

I have in current info manuals of mine sections like

    @node Simple customization, Known problems, Keys and lisp, top
    @chapter Simple customization

    Customization options can be found by typing @kbd{M-x customize-group
    @key{RET} preview @key{RET}}. Remember to set the option when you have
    changed it. The list of suggestions can be made very long (and is
    covered in detail in @ref{For advanced users}), but some are:

    @itemize @bullet
    @item Change the color of the preview background

    If you use a non-white background in Emacs, you might have color
    artifacts at the edges of your previews.  Playing around with the option
    @code{preview-transparent-color} in the @code{Preview Appearance} group
    might improve things.  With some settings, the cursor may cover the
    whole background of a preview, however.

    Since this customization group is very specific to the display engine
    in use, you may see somewhat different options under XEmacs.

    @item Showing @code{\label}s
    @cindex Showing @code{\label}s

    When using @previewlatex{}, the @code{\label}s are hidden by the
    previews.  It is possible to make them visible in the output @file{.dvi}
    by using the @LaTeX{} package @code{showkeys} alternatively
    @code{showlabels}.  However, the boxes of these labels will be outside
    the region @previewlatex{} considers as the preview image.  To enable a
    similar mechanism internal to @previewlatex{}, enable the
    @code{showlabels} option in the variable
    @code{preview-default-option-list} in the @code{Preview Latex} group.

[...]

Now it would obviously be _much_ more helpful if we had some window
with an example file open, and we had active buttons in the info text
that made a certain setting and reran preview-latex on the example
window, showing the effects of each change immediately.  When done,
we could press a button for saving the changes.

Also, one would want a certain integration with customize.

And one would want to have alist of derived file names that are tried
in order.  For example, for the tex-mode assistant, the following
info/TeXinfo/whatever files in the assistant directory would have
their indices searched for a particular option:

texmode-de.ass tex-mode-fr.ass texmode-en.ass

(actually, given my mastery of French, I'd not search the middle one).

That way, assistants can explain things in the local languages if
somebody provided a translation/explanation for it.

This would go a long way towards making Emacs more acceptable to
quite a few people: having the teaching materials in local language,
even if the core documentation and function names and so on aren't.

Also when talking about menu entries, it would be nice to have a
button or active field or whatever that would just pop up the relevant
menu in the current Emacs session (in an associated window/frame with
the required mode, obviously).

Or at least to have some trickery for Texinfo editing that would just
insert a tabular representation of some menu into the text, so as to
get reasonable info in the HTML and printed versions.

In short: I think there are a lot of synergies one could gain from
getting some mechanisms for a closer coupling of the info/Texinfo
system with Emacs.  The relevant file format need not be info, but
the ability to get printed and HTML versions at least for
informational purposes should not lightly be dismissed.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum